| ‘He’s losing it. He’s losing it’: Here’s what happened when I watched the final debate with Trump loyalists in Florida Posted: 23 Oct 2020 09:41 AM PDT  President is fighting for his political life in Florida, writes Andrew Buncombe from a debate-watching party in Daytona Beach
|
| 'Mama, they just shot us for nothing': Waukegan police officer fatally shoots Black teen, injures woman Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:21 PM PDT  People are protesting in Waukegan, Illinois, after a police officer fatally shot 19-year-old Marcellis Stinnette on Tuesday.
|
| Treasure hunter dug through Yellowstone cemetery looking for famous bounty, feds say Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:03 PM PDT  He was allegedly seeking the coveted Forrest Fenn treasure, officials said.
|
| More than 47 million ballots have already been cast in the presidential election Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:29 PM PDT  About 47.5 million ballots have already been cast in the U.S. presidential election, data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project shows.This is about eight times the number of early votes cast at this same time in 2016, Reuters reports. That year, more than 47.2 million early votes were eventually cast.Because of the coronavirus pandemic and safety concerns, more people are using mail-in ballots or taking advantage of early in-person voting. University of Florida Prof. Michael McDonald administers the U.S. Elections Project, and he predicts there will be a record turnout of 150 million — the highest rate since 1908. This would represent 65 percent of all eligible voters.FiveThirtyEight is projecting something similar — forecasting that the total election turnout will be 154 million, with an 80th percentile range between 144 million and 165 million. In 2016, turnout was 137 million. "The primary ingredient in our turnout estimate is polls that ask people whether they're more or less enthusiastic about voting than usual, and those polls are showing record levels of enthusiasm," editor-in-chief Nate Silver tweeted.More stories from theweek.com Trump loses on the merits Who won the final 2020 debate? Call it a draw. Get ready for Trump TV, America
|
| America's 1.3 million Jehovah's Witnesses will be sitting out this election Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:56 PM PDT  Jehovah's Witnesses do not vote, run for public office, serve in the military, or take "any action to change governments."
|
| The family of the rescued Zion National Park hiker spoke out after a sheriff's sergeant questioned her survival story — but it's still confusing Posted: 23 Oct 2020 06:41 AM PDT  Holly Courtier was found 12 days after disappearing on a hike. Her sister spoke to reporters after a sheriff's sergeant questioned the survival story.
|
| Croatia accused of brutality, sexual abuse against migrants Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:14 AM PDT  SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Danish aid workers stationed in the Balkans say dozens of migrants have alleged they were brutalized by Croatian law-enforcement officers when they tried to cross into the European Union nation, before being summarily expelled back to Bosnia. Nicola Bay, the head of the Danish Refugee Council in Bosnia, told The Associated Press Friday that 149 migrants of varying nationalities, independently interviewed by his staff in the country over the past 10 days, reported being exposed to "extremely abusive" treatment by Croatian police. The testimonies include allegations of brutal and prolonged beatings, of people being stripped naked and being forced to lie like logs stacked on top of each other, Bay said, adding: "In two cases, we have reports of severe sexual abuse."
|
| I had an abortion after a fatal fetal diagnosis. Amy Barrett could take that choice away. Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:30 AM PDT  If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, restrictions that make abortion less available and more expensive likely will become the norm.
|
| White House official says next 48 hours key for stimulus deal Posted: 21 Oct 2020 02:45 PM PDT  A White House official on Wednesday said the next two days of talks over a new US stimulus package will be critical, as Washington policymakers touted only incremental progress in negotiations.
|
| Text Messages Appear to Show Meeting between Joe Biden and Son’s Business Partner Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:27 PM PDT  Joe Biden appears to have met his son Hunter Biden's business partner in 2017, according to text messages obtained by Fox News.If it took place, the meeting may contradict the former vice president's claim that he "never" spoke with "my son about his overseas business dealings." The text messages came from Tony Bobulinski, the former CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, a joint venture between members of the Biden family and now-defunct Chinese oil company CEFC."Mrng plse let me knw if we will do early dinner w your Uncle & dad and where, also for document translation do you want it simple Chinese or traditional?" Bobulinski wrote in a text to Hunter Biden on May 2, 2017."Not sure on dinner yet and whatever is the most common for a Chinese legal DOC," Hunter replied."Chinese legal docs can be both, i'll make it traditional," Bobulinski answered. Later on, Hunter replied, "Dad not in now until 11- let's me I and Jim meet at 10 at Beverly Hilton where he's staying." "Jim" is James Biden, Hunter's uncle and the former vice president's brother.On the same day, Bobulinski sent a text to James Biden."Great to meet u and spend some time together, please thank Joe for his time, was great to talk thx Tony b," the message states.The Beverly Hilton referred to by Hunter appears to be the Los Angeles branch of the hotel chain. On May 3, one day after the text conversations, Joe Biden participated in a conversation at the Milken Institute's "Global Conference," held in the Beverly Hilton in L.A.Bobulinski has turned over the texts and other documents to various Senate committees for further investigation. Bobulinski also confirmed the authenticity of an email purporting to show that Joe Biden was offered a 10 percent stake in the CEFC-Biden family partnership.Hunter Biden had cultivated a relationship with CEFC and its chairman, Ye Jianming. In November 2017 the Justice Department charged Ye's lieutenant Patrick Ho with corruption and bribery, and Hunter Biden initially agreed to represent Ho in the lawsuit.Ho was eventually sentenced to prison in the U.S. for attempting to bribe the governments of Chad and Uganda. Ye Jianming disappeared in 2018, and is thought to be held by the Chinese government.
|
| Christian singer to host evangelical ‘worship protest’ on Washington DC’s National Mall with 15,000 expected to attend Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:06 PM PDT  The event scheduled this weekend will not require attendees to wear masks or social distance
|
| California ordered to halve San Quentin population after showing 'deliberate indifference,' court says Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:37 AM PDT  The ruling sends a clear message that officials overseeing San Quentin have not done enough to protect inmates from the coronavirus after a summer outbreak.
|
| Inside Putin’s Mysterious Purge of Top FSB Official General Sergei Smirnov Posted: 23 Oct 2020 01:44 AM PDT  MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin vowed on Thursday he would not be swayed by Western pressure over the poisoning of his most prominent domestic critic, Alexei Navalny.Nonetheless, a reported mysterious shakeup in a Russian intelligence agency, and other comments by Putin, suggest the Kremlin has been forced to at least try to demonstrate distance between the president and those who might be behind Navalny's poisoning with the military nerve agent Novichok.Speaking in front of Russian businessmen, Putin declared he had personally allowed Navalny to leave Siberia for Berlin for medical treatment, which saved the opposition leader's life. A few hours later, Putin fired the deputy director of Federal Security Service (FSB), General Sergei Smirnov, according to a report in a respected business newspaper, RBK. General Smirnov oversaw an FSB department that has been linked in British media reports to the poisoning.Navalny, a 44-year-old anti-corruption activist and opposition leader, collapsed on a plane from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was in coma while his wife, Yulia, and members of his anti-corruption organization struggled to even visit his sickbed at the hospital, as he was surrounded by FSB and police officers. According to a report in The Guardian, one of the departments managed by General Smirnov, the so-called FSB's Second Service, was behind Navalny's poisoning with Novichok.The shakeup in the FSB became a big day for Kremlin-watchers, who in the best of times struggle to figure out the centers of power behind the Kremlin and FSB doors. To be sure, the firing of the general could have other explanations than the poisoning.Navalny Had Many Enemies in the Kremlin—but Who Wanted Him Dead?Still, Russia's media wondered about a link between Smirnov and Navalny. Pavel Lobkov, a news presenter, was on live Rain TV on Thursday for the president's speech. "First we heard Putin babbling away his usual drill about the evil West and how we relaxed. But then after 6 p.m. he began to talk about Navalny and then we saw the biggest news of the day: Putin removed General Smirnov," Lobkov told The Daily Beast. "The official reason was age—Smirnov turned 70—but considering what his Second Service was famous for, it could be the punishment for not doing a clean poisoning job. Since FSB is a completely closed and secret service, we did not manage to find anybody competent to comment on Smirnov's case."Smirnov had worked in the KGB and FSB since 1974, first in Putin's hometown of Leningrad —now St Petersburg—where Putin has also served in the Soviet KGB, then at the central FSB apparatus in Moscow.News agencies published bits of Putin's address to the Russian elite and his comments about Navalny. He was reading a text from a piece of paper, quite unusual for Putin, who typically speaks for hours without looking at his notes. His announcement of his personal role in evacuating Navalny was mixed with defiance. "Looking at what is happening in the world, in other countries, I want to tell those who are still waiting for Russia to gradually fade away: We are worried about only one thing—how not to catch a cold at your funerals."Navalny, who is still undergoing medical treatment in Germany after being in a coma for nearly three weeks, said Putin was personally behind his poisoning. In his first interview, with Der Spiegel magazine, Navalny said only the most influential people in the secret services, the FSB director Alexander Bortnikov and the head of foreign intelligence office, Sergei Naryshkin, could order the Novichok attack without an approval by Russia's commander-in-chief. Navalny also blamed Putin for ordering the attack in his interview with Russia's most popular blogger, Yuriy Dud, viewed by more than 21 million people."Putin is afraid of Navalny, the only real opposition leader, who will definitely come back to Russia, fight to get registered for the presidential elections in three years and win the election to be Russia's next president," a close Navalny ally, Lyubov Sobol, told The Daily Beast in a recent interview.An investigative reporter at The Bell, Anastasia Stognei, said that General Smirnov was in charge of several key FSB departments, including department K, which is dealing with economic crimes. The department was famous for several high-profile arrests with links to domestic politics, including the cases of ex-minister of economic development, Aleksey Ulyukayev, and the owner of Summa group, Ziyavudin Magomedov.Putin Is Facing the Toughest Fight of His Presidency as Former USSR Goes up in FlamesLast April, the FSB arrested three of its own officials in Smirnov's K Department, on suspicion they took multi-million dollar bribes from Russian bankers. "Smirnov was directly involved with the banking sector. Our sources explained the high-profile arrests with 'insider fighting' inside the FSB between Smirnov's clan and Sergei Korolev, the head of economic security service, who they say is going to replace Smirnov as the deputy head of FSB," Stognei said.Intrigues in Russia's secret services have far-reaching consequences, said Sergei Parkhomenko, a commentator on Russia's politics. Parkhomenko said that Smirnov was a lost chess piece in the fight of Russian secret services. "There are several 'cleaners' around Putin, who do dirty jobs in the most dirty ways; Putin might make comments about some personalities, his services fulfil what they believe were the boss' wishes, then we hear of Anna Politkovskaya's or Boris Nemtsov's assassinations, poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko or a less successful poisoning attempt of Sergei Skripal or Navalny," Parkhomenko told The Daily Beast on Thursday. "But we don't have any clue. Maybe there were more than 100 successful poisoning attempts, when young and healthy people died a quiet death."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Who the hell are nonvoters? We polled them and found the 6 kinds of people who don't vote. Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:58 PM PDT  If "did not vote" were a presidential candidate in 2016, it would have received 100 million votes and won in a landslide.
|
| A shift in Miami-Dade’s Black political leadership puts the focus on inequality and race Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:21 PM PDT  During one of his final Miami-Dade commission meetings after nearly three decades on the dais, Dennis Moss led fellow board members through a talk of unrealized progress for Black Miami in the Miami Herald's "Separate and Unequal" series.
|
| Minn. judge dismisses 1 charge against former cop in Floyd's death Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:46 AM PDT  A Minnesota judge has dismissed a third-degree murder charge filed against the former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee against George Floyd's neck, but the more serious second-degree murder charge remains.
|
| Pakistan stays on global terrorism financing 'grey list' Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:31 AM PDT |
| Fact check: Obama administration approved, built temporary holding enclosures at southern border Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:33 AM PDT  A meme about a recent speech is true. The facilities were built during the Obama era -- and were intended to hold migrant children for up to 72 hours.
|
| Biden Contradicts His Son, Insists Family Did Not Profit from Biden Name Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:09 AM PDT  Joe Biden denied that his family has profited from his public offices, appearing to contradict a statement his son Hunter Biden made last year in which he said he thinks he would "probably not" have been asked to be on the board of a Ukrainian energy company if he were not Biden's son.In an interview published Wednesday, the Democratic presidential nominee was asked about Republican Senator Ron Johnson's claim that Hunter Biden along with other Biden family members profited off the family name, an accusation that has become a frequent attack line by the Trump campaign less than two weeks out from the election."Is there any legitimacy to Senator Johnson's claim?" WISN 12 News's Adrienne Pedersen asked Biden."None whatsoever," Biden responded, calling the accusations "garbage" promoted by "Trump's henchman," Rudy Guiliani."It's a last-ditch effort in his desperate campaign to smear me and my family," Biden continued, citing Senator Mitt Romney in the former vice president's argument that "there's no basis to this."Romney serves on the Senate Homeland Security committee, which Johnson chairs, and in September criticized the committee's probe of Hunter Biden's business dealings, saying it is "not the legitimate role of government or Congress … to be used in an effort to damage political opponents.""And the vast majority of the intelligence people have come out and said there's no basis at all," Biden added. "Ron should be ashamed of himself."Last week, the New York Post reported on leaked emails revealing high-dollar negotiations between his son Hunter Biden and foreign companies.In leaked emails from 2014, Biden appears to try to leverage his influence with his father, then-vice president Joe Biden, in negotiations regarding his lucrative position on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. He refers to his father, who was heavily involved in U.S. policy on Ukraine at the time, as "my guy."Emails from 2017 show Biden discussing a deal with the former chairman of Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy, Ye Jianming, saying Ye agreed to improve the terms of Biden's three-year consulting contract with CEFC, which initially promised Biden $10 million per-year "for introductions alone." One of Biden's business partners who was included on the chain confirmed the email's authenticity to Fox News.In an interview last year Hunter Biden appeared to contradict his father's claim that the family name did not provide opportunities for profit."If your last name wasn't Biden, do you think you would have been asked to be on the board of Burisma?" ABC's Amy Robach asked the younger Biden."I don't know. I don't know. Probably not. I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life that if my last name wasn't Biden."Trump has claimed that "Biden and his son are stone cold crooked" and on Tuesday called on Attorney General William Barr to investigate the pair."We've got to get the attorney general to act," Trump said during an interview on Fox News. "He's got to act, and he's got to act fast. He's got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election."
|
| Trump’s rape defamation hearing abruptly ends after DOJ lawyer is denied entry into courthouse Posted: 21 Oct 2020 06:38 PM PDT  Attorney falls foul of New York's coronavirus regulations
|
| Turkey's Armenians 'cannot breathe' as Karabakh rhetoric rages Posted: 23 Oct 2020 02:18 AM PDT  Turkey's support of Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh is loud and intensely partisan, and the tiny Armenian community in Turkey is feeling under pressure.
|
| Evacuations ordered as Colorado wildfire rages Posted: 21 Oct 2020 11:06 PM PDT  The town of Grand Lake was under an evacuation order Wednesday night as the East Troublesome Fire approached, officials said.
|
| GOP House Candidate Sounds Racist Dog Whistle in Attack on Journalist Posted: 23 Oct 2020 05:04 AM PDT  Madison Cawthorn, a Republican candidate for the House from North Carolina, created an attack website accusing a journalist of leaving a job in academia "to work for non-white males, like Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males running for office."The journalist, Tom Fiedler, who had written favorably about Cawthorn's opponent, is a former dean of the Boston University College of Communications. He volunteered for the 2020 presidential campaign of Booker, D-N.J.Fiedler has since written articles and fact-checks about Cawthorn for a nonprofit news website in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, where Cawthorn is facing Moe Davis, a former Air Force prosecutor.The attack on Fiedler was reported by The Bulwark, which called it "a despicable smear" echoing racist remarks by President Donald Trump.By late Thursday, the website's language accusing Fiedler of seeking to ruin white male candidates had been deleted. It was changed to read that Fiedler had "become a political operative and is an unapologetic defender of left-wing identity politics.""The syntax of our language was unclear and unfairly implied I was criticizing Cory Booker," Cawthorn said in a statement. "I have condemned racism and identity politics throughout my campaign including during my convention speech when I highlighted M.L.K.'s vision for equality," he said in reference to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.The open congressional seat, which was held by Mark Meadows before he became Trump's chief of staff, has become unexpectedly competitive.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
|
| Ghislaine Maxwell could not contain frustration as she 'pounded' desk during bad tempered deposition Posted: 23 Oct 2020 02:05 AM PDT  Ghislaine Maxwell could not hide her frustration during an increasingly heated and bad tempered legal deposition that was unsealed in New York. Several times during the seven-hour exchange, which took place over two days, her anger boiled over as she was forced to answer repeated questions about allegations made by a woman she insisted was a serial liar. At one point, unable to contain her emotions, Miss Maxwell "very inappropriately and very harshly" pounded the desk, forcing them to take a break. She was being quizzed about Virginia Roberts Giuffre's claim that she was just 15 when she was first introduced to Jeffrey Epstein at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which she furiously insisted had been fabricated to make the story "more exciting." "Can we agree she was not the age she said… that is obviously, manifestly, absolutely, totally a lie," Miss Maxwell said. Sigfrid McCawley, for Ms Roberts Giuffre, interjected, stating for the record that Miss Maxwell had banged the desk "in an inappropriate manner." "I ask she take a deep breath and calm down," she said. "I know this is a difficult position but physical assault or threats is not appropriate so no pounding, no stomping, no."
|
| Fake CIA Spy Almost Scammed His Way Into Immunity Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:00 AM PDT  The scam was bigger than anyone knew.A sentencing memo filed in federal court by the Department of Justice reveals for the first time the full extent of fake spy Garrison Courtney's stunning ruse: In addition to the $4.4 million he personally extracted from his victims over the course of more than four years, he was in line for nearly $4 billion in Army, Navy, and Air Force contracts had the FBI not caught him.Even more astonishing, before his double-fake cover was blown, Courtney came "dangerously close" to getting a legal sign-off that could have made it impossible for prosecutors to bring him to justice, authorities said in the new filing.Courtney, who served as a high-level spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Administration before embarking on his criminal career, pleaded guilty this summer to one count of wire fraud. As The Daily Beast reported, his con was so audacious and complicated—and hoodwinked so many current and former government officials—that seasoned investigators were left slack-jawed.And in a handwritten jailhouse letter, Courtney claimed that his scheme got so big, he didn't know how to stop it without exposing himself as a "fraud and failure." According to court papers, after he left his DEA job, Courtney crafted a new, entirely fictional persona as a deep-cover CIA operative on a top-secret mission crucial to national security. He approached defense contractors and convinced them to put him on their payrolls so he would look like an ordinary citizen as he went about his supposedly covert activities. Courtney promised the companies lucrative government contracts in return—and in some cases, delivered.The memo released ahead of his Oct. 27 sentencing includes part of a spreadsheet Courtney maintained to track the federal contracts he was vying for. When investigators disrupted his plot in 2016, Courtney was "seeking to corrupt over $3.7 billion in federal procurements," prosecutors wrote."The government had requirements, he knew the requirements, and he was gonna deliver the requirements," a person involved in Courtney's scheme—but who escaped criminal charges by cooperating with investigators—told The Daily Beast, explaining that Courtney specifically targeted companies he knew would qualify for the contracts. "He only needed a little bit more time, and he actually would have delivered. If left alone, he'd probably be a billionaire right now."The scam involved authentic-looking CIA documents, on actual agency letterhead, and briefings by real government officials and military officers in secure rooms called SCIFs. Using these sorts of phony documents, Courtney also managed to convince government employees as well as private citizens that they had been selected to go undercover for the CIA.In a sealed pre-sentencing investigation report, which is footnoted in the prosecutors' memo, Courtney is quoted as saying, "So many people believed in it and were determined for the 'program' to succeed. It seemed to me like the program was actually on the verge of becoming real or legitimate given who was involved and how it was operating."Courtney was so convincing, he had a number of unnamed public officials try to halt the FBI's investigation in the name of national security. One "went so far as to threaten the FBI agents with themselves being prosecuted if they continued their investigation," according to the memo. The feds say Courtney came "dangerously close" to effectively immunizing himself from prosecution" by getting his bogus program legitimized under national security law. If Courtney had convinced officials to sign off on a so-called Security Classification Guide giving the program actual legal cover, "it is chilling to consider what the defendant could have accomplished," says the memo.How a Fake CIA Spy Fooled Everyone and Swindled MillionsSince everything was supposedly highly classified, none of his marks were allowed to mention Courtney's phony program for fear of prosecution. In fact, this apparently remains a problem for investigators."Investigators commonly must confront and overcome the code of silence practiced by organized crime, gang members, or corrupt public officials," says the prosecutors' memo. "But here, law enforcement was faced with ordinarily law-abiding witnesses and victims who steadfastly refused to speak because of their mistaken belief that they had a legal and patriotic duty to remain silent. In certain instances, the defendant had fooled his victims so thoroughly that years later, despite the active involvement of cleared special agents from the FBI, and investigators from the CIA's Office of Inspector General and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (who, by statute, have access to all classified information within their areas of responsibility...)... some witnesses still refuse to speak with the prosecution team."Worse yet "is the emotional and reputational damage [Courtney] wrought on his victims," prosecutors wrote in their filing. "One victim notes that he/she gave up a solid position and career to assume what he/she was led to believe would be an important role assisting the government in the defendant's bogus program. Former colleagues hold that victim at arm's length, and the victim has lost job opportunities."Courtney's former sidekick, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition that his name not be used, is an ex-military intelligence officer. The two worked together at cybersecurity contractor Blue Canopy, one of the companies that gave Courtney the "commercial cover" he claimed to need. The ex-coworker said his involvement with Courtney ultimately cost him his life's savings, his marriage, and his honor."The FBI agreed not to put my name out there, so I thought I could walk away from this and try to create some semblance of a life," the coworker said. "All I ever wanted to be was an intelligence officer, and I was really good."It all came crashing down in 2016 when, prosecutors say, law enforcement began "actively probing" Courtney's bona fides. In a conversation secretly recorded by the highest-ranking intelligence official in the U.S. Air Force, Courtney brazenly lied about the origins of the program, which he called, among other things, Alpha-214 and FirstNet."In 2013, it was, I can't remember if it was 15th or 18th of December... when all the Snowden fallout happened, basically the industry just got nailed," Courtney told the official. "They were losing... about 3 trillion... So they had the White House meeting... There was a group of about 15 people that were told, 'You're in the private sector now. We need you to coordinate with the private sector to get stuff aligned.' In about 2016 January, which is now, then the government will start to work with you in order to set up the portfolio or program so that we can start putting the proper protocols in place."Courtney insisted to the official, identified in the filing as a lieutenant general, that any questions about the veracity of the program were simply a result of "miscommunication" between departing Pentagon officials and their successors.The FBI raided Courtney's Florida home a few months later."Courtney's extraordinary capacity to deceive and manipulate others, and his brazen use of the powers of our government, reveal that he is in need of a substantial period of incapacitation," prosecutors wrote.This past June, Courtney took a deal and agreed to plead guilty. While out on bail, he got a job at Pizza Hut to try and pay his bills, according to a companion filing submitted by Courtney's lawyer. But Courtney continued to perpetuate his swindle even after his guilty plea, and Courtney was soon remanded to jail to await his sentencing.In the filing, defense attorney Stuart Sears pointed out that Courtney was battling "significant financial problems" when he committed his crimes, but that he used the money to support his family and take care of things like medical bills, not to "support a lavish lifestyle." This, argued Sears, should be taken into consideration by the judge determining his punishment. He is asking for a sentence of 37 months.In a handwritten letter to U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady from his jail cell, Courtney explained that "what started with a simple lie grew into something I could no longer control or stop without admitting to being a fraud and failure."In the note, which covered four pages of lined notebook paper, Courtney said he regrets "causing others to become less trusting of the government they interact with." He admitted that "reputations have been tarnished," companies have "suffered real financial losses," and government resources were wasted on the "web" of lies he spun.He went on to promise to use his time in prison to better himself."As I said in the beginning, it is an over-whelming (sic) feeling entering a jail cell and knowing it will be my home for the foreseeable future," Courtney wrote. "I will spend the time in jail building back the trust I have lost with my family and others. I will serve my time with dignity and honorably."He mentioned his (actual) military service, the graduate degree he earned from George Mason University, and his "five wonderful boys." He also promised to be a model inmate, noting that he has "already started this process.""I will do whatever it takes to prove to my children that they can still be proud of their dad," Courtney continued. "Being seperated (sic) from them and knowing that I will not be there to help raise them has been emotionally devastating for them and myself. But, this is my fault and my fault alone and my path to redemption will be making sure they know that and strive to not make the same mistakes I have."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| WATCH: Trump posts his version of '60 Minutes' interview Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:44 AM PDT  President Trump uploaded a cut of his "60 Minutes" segment to Facebook on Thursday before its Sunday evening broadcast on CBS. Trump this week abruptly ended his interview with Lesley Stahl and walked off camera.
|
| Iran blacklists U.S. ambassador in Iraq, reciprocating U.S. move Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:56 AM PDT  Iran on Friday blacklisted the U.S. ambassador in Iraq and two other diplomats, following a similar move by the United States against Iran's envoy to Baghdad, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. Iraq is one of the few countries that is allied to both the United States and Iran, which both provided military support in a 2014-2017 campaign against Islamic State.
|
| Fact check: Biden owns 2 of the 4 homes pictured in a viral meme Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:39 PM PDT  A viral meme purports to show four $3 million-$7.5 million homes Biden owns. He only owns two of them, neither of which cost more than $3 million.
|
| University of Utah admits error in Lauren McCluskey’s death and agrees to pay $13.5m settlement Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:10 PM PDT  Lauren McCluskey had reported harassment to police more than 20 times
|
| Trump commutes sentence of ex-Georgia teacher convicted of $8 million food stamp fraud Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:32 AM PDT  The then-Atlanta Public Schools educator was sentenced in 2013.
|
| Venezuelans 'dying slowly' in rat- and roach-infested homes Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:15 PM PDT  Sunlight cannot penetrate, the air is fetid and fellow residents include rats and cockroaches -- but that's how 14 families are "dying slowly" in government accommodation in Venezuela's capital Caracas.
|
| Nigeria Sars protest: Unrest in Lagos after shooting Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:58 AM PDT  Amnesty International says at least 12 people were killed on Tuesday during protests in the city.
|
| A 73-year-old in Colorado was fined more than $1,000 after her pet deer gored a woman walking her dog Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:10 PM PDT  Tynette Housley, 73, was cited on misdemeanor charges of illegal possession of wildlife and illegally feeding wildlife.
|
| Florida to investigate all COVID-19 deaths after questions about 'integrity' of data Posted: 21 Oct 2020 05:25 PM PDT  FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida, which has reported the deaths of more than 16,400 people from COVID-19, now says the public may not be able to trust any of those numbers. The state Department of Health on Wednesday ordered an investigation of all pandemic fatalities, one week after House Speaker Jose Oliva slammed the death data from medical examiners as "often lacking in rigor" and ...
|
| North Korea told citizens to stay inside, claiming (with no scientific basis) that a storm of yellow dust coming from China was carrying COVID-19 Posted: 23 Oct 2020 03:21 AM PDT  On Wednesday, North Korea's state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned people of the "danger of invading malicious viruses" inside an approaching storm.
|
| Erdogan says Turkey tested Russian S-400s, shrugs off U.S. objections Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:30 AM PDT  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan confirmed on Friday that Turkey had been testing the S-400 air defence systems that it bought from Russia and said U.S. objections on the issue did not matter. Washington says Ankara's purchase of the Russian systems compromises NATO defences, and has threatened sanctions. An apparent firing test of S-400s test last week prompted a furious response from the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon.
|
| Senate Judiciary Committee authorizes subpoenas for Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg over Hunter Biden stories Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:30 AM PDT  Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he hoped it would give the panel "leverage" to secure testimony from the CEOs.
|
| Lindsey Graham stands firm behind Amy Coney Barrett - but back home his bid for re-election is on shaky ground Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:56 AM PDT  'Lindsey Graham flip flops. You've gotta stick to your guns, man,' Harrison voter says of senator's handling of Supreme Court pick
|
| 6 alleged members of "murder squad" linked to 8 killings Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:41 PM PDT |
| Sacha Baron Cohen says 'it was pretty clear to us' what Giuliani was doing in Borat scene: 'It is what it is' Posted: 23 Oct 2020 07:17 AM PDT  Sacha Baron Cohen is pushing back as Rudy Giuliani claims his scene in the new Borat is a "complete fabrication."The comedian spoke to Good Morning America on Friday about a climactic sequence in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, in which Giuliani speaks to an actress, Maria Bakalova, posing as a journalist. After the interview, which takes place in a hotel room, the personal attorney to President Trump is seen lying on a bed and putting his hand into his pants. Giuliani says he was only tucking in his shirt after recording equipment used for the interview was removed."If the president's lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior, then heaven knows what he's done with other female journalists in hotel rooms," Baron Cohen told GMA. "Listen, I just urge everyone to watch the movie. It is what it is. He did what he did, and make your own mind up. It was pretty clear to us."Baron Cohen also told GMA he was "quite concerned" for Bakalova while secretly monitoring the Giuliani scene.Giuliani, who in the scene can also be heard appearing to tell Bakalova she "can give me your phone number and your address," had earlier this week said that "at no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate." He added that "if Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar."Details of Giuliani's Borat scene, which occurs near the end of the mockumentary, were revealed on Wednesday as reviews for the film were published. While Amazon was set to release the film on Friday, it was uploaded early on Thursday right before the final 2020 presidential debate. > "I would say that if the president's lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior then heaven knows what he's doing with other female journalists in hotel rooms."@SachaBaronCohen weighs in on the Rudy Giuliani scene in Borat2 that has made headlines. pic.twitter.com/RfeNJeWPdw> > -- Good Morning America (@GMA) October 23, 2020More stories from theweek.com Trump loses on the merits Who won the final 2020 debate? Call it a draw. Get ready for Trump TV, America
|
| Nigeria president warns protesters as unrest flares Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:37 PM PDT  Nigeria's president has urged an end to unrest sweeping the country but avoided mentioning the police shooting of unarmed demonstrators that sparked international condemnation and unleashed chaos in Africa's biggest city.
|
| How has China avoided a coronavirus second wave? Posted: 23 Oct 2020 04:31 AM PDT  Europe is the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic once again, with the number of daily infections doubling in the past 10 days as a second wave hits. But China has avoided a second wave. The question is why? The answer is that its authorities, after being overwhelmed in Wuhan, have fine-tuned an emergency response for surprise cluster outbreaks. Many subsequent waves of infection have emerged in China, a country of 1.4 billion people and nearly 40 times the size of the UK. Cases have cropped up across the country, as far apart as in the south along the border to Vietnam, and in the north near Russia.
|
| The AI that spots Alzheimer's from cookie drawing Posted: 22 Oct 2020 03:25 PM PDT  The machine learning system analysed speech patterns to predict who would develop the disease
|
| China's President Xi Jinping issues a warning to potential ‘invaders’ Posted: 23 Oct 2020 03:33 AM PDT  President Xi Jinping has issued a sharp warning to potential "invaders" on the 70th anniversary of the Chinese entry into the Korean War.
|
| U.S. likely to have enough COVID-19 vaccines for all vulnerable Americans by year end: official Posted: 21 Oct 2020 01:54 PM PDT  The U.S. government is "cautiously optimistic" that one or two vaccines, likely from Pfizer Inc or Moderna Inc, will be available by the end of the year and can begin to be distributed to Americans, officials said during a news conference. Azar said he expects all seniors, healthcare workers, and first responders will be able to receive a vaccine as soon as January, with the rest of the American public able to get a vaccine by April.
|
| Debate analysis: Biden offers substance while Trump deals in conspiracy theories Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:43 PM PDT  Democratic nominee appeared to do just enough more to win over the few voting blocs that mattered on Thursday night
|
| 100-year-old voter shares advice ahead of election, names favorite president in her lifetime Posted: 22 Oct 2020 11:10 AM PDT  Voting since she was eighteen, Mabel Cook votes in her fifteenth presidential election. Great-grandkids witness the monumental event
|
| Grandmother’s pill mills made millions in Tennessee, feds say. She’s going to prison Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:27 PM PDT  Sylvia Hofstetter was sentenced to more than three decades in prison after prosecutors said she pocketed $4 million distributing oxycodone and other opiates.
|
| Divided Supreme Court hands Alabama GOP a victory, allows ban on curbside voting Posted: 21 Oct 2020 10:58 PM PDT  The Supreme Court late Wednesday lifted an injunction put in place by a federal judge, allowing Alabama to ban curbside voting in counties that wanted to allow it this election. The court's five conservative justices did not give a reason for their decision, but Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained in a dissent she would have left the injunction in place to allow people with disabilities or other risk factors to vote from their cars during the COVID-19 pandemic. The court's two other liberal justices signed on to her dissent."The Alabama dispute is the latest in a flurry of election-related fights to reach the justices in recent weeks," including a 4-4 deadlocked decision Monday that allowed Pennsylvania to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day for three days after the election, Politico reports. "The series of decisions suggests the high court, in its current configuration after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, is poised to block election-related changes ordered by federal courts, while allowing state officials to make adjustments even without clear buy-in from the state legislature."Democrats lost another voting rights battle on Wednesday when the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a state law that makes it harder for county officials to process absentee ballot requests with information missing, Reuters notes. "Opinion polls suggest a larger share of Democrats will cast absentee ballots — which include those returned by mail — than will Republicans."More stories from theweek.com Men, this should be so easy A painful postpartum injury is plaguing America's moms — but nobody really talks about it Trump doubles down on the jerk vote
|
| GOP Sen. Thom Tillis faces off against Democrat Cal Cunningham in a competitive US Senate race in North Carolina Posted: 22 Oct 2020 12:30 PM PDT  Tillis, first elected in 2014, is up for a tough reelection battle against former state legislator Cunningham.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment